Can I resize one part of my picture in Photoshop?

[Cocohoney]

How would I go about making an element of my photo smaller or larger in Photoshop Elements 8? Is the only way to extract it, resize and replace it? The image I am working from is already an extract itself, so this would be do-able, I just wondered if there was a better or more simple way?

 

[swanseamale47]

Yes, select the area you want with any of the selection tools (say the lasso) then copy and paste, that'll put that bit on it's own layer, now use free transform to drag it bigger or smaller (as needed) hold down shift to keep the shape (proportions) other wise you'll strech it.
You may need to add some feather at the selection stage to soften the edges.

 

[Cocohoney]

Thanks! That's worked great.

 

[OlyPaul]

In Elements 8 you just need to hit V on the keyboard and drag a corner to resize proportionly holding down the shift key in Elements has the opposite effect and engages free transform.

 

[Cocohoney]

ah, ok, thank you